Bug Safari!

Apr 12, 2012

They're there.

If you walk slowly into your garden or backyard, and observe your surroundings, you'll find them. A jumping spider perched on a rose leaf. A soldier beetle climbing out of a tulip. A syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, foraging on a poppy blossom.

The insects (and spiders!) are back. The springlike temperatures, accompanied by bursts of rain, mean that these tiny little critters are everywhere. 

If you pop a macro lens on your single-lens reflex camera, or use the macro setting on your point-and-shoot camera, you'll get them. There's even a set of lenses (macro, wide-angle and telephoto) that magnetically attach to your I-phone camera.

Travelers say it's fun and educational to go to Africa on safari, but you can also go on a Bug Safari in your backyard. It won't cost nearly as much, you don't have to make reservations, you don't have to hire a tour guide, and you don't have to worry about a water buffalo charging you. 

Or your credit card company charging you.


By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

A jumping spider perched on a rose leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A jumping spider perched on a rose leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A soldier beetle peers at the camera. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A soldier beetle peers at the camera. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A syrphid or flower fly foraging on a poppy blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey

A syrphid or flower fly foraging on a poppy blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)